'No, I just need you,' his heart answered.
'Okay, if you promise you'll be waiting for my return,' his head urged him to say.
Fulton knew that he had spoken but he didn't know which of the options he had taken.
Chapter Twenty-One
Fulton climbed out of bed and came face to face with himself.
The other Fulton was dressed in a garish red shirt with a large collar. The shirt was adorned with nauseatingly bright pictures of wedges of fruit in every conceivable colour and some that Fulton thought must be new.
Along with the shirt the false Fulton also wore a pair of tie-dyed, knee-length Bermuda shorts. He had a pair of brown leather sandals on his feet.
Since leaving Francesca and her nest he had forced himself back into his old routine. The corpses of a pair of stray dogs were starting to stink out the place from the corner of the room. He had put black tape over the inside of the bed-sit window, he wasn't about to trust the thin curtains to keep the sun at bay.
"Who are you?" Fulton asked circling the impostor like a shark.
"Who in the blue hell do I look like, moron? I'm you," the false Fulton said.
"Nice try, bud. But I'm me and there can be only one," Fulton said.
The other Fulton gave him an exasperated look. "I'm not literally you, idiot. I'm a creation of your screwed up psyche. Would you really be seen dead in this ensemble," he indicated the sickening shirt and shorts.
"No," Fulton answered uncertainly.
"And neither would I if your imagination had even the remotest hint of class," False Fulton said.
Fulton gave up his circling and sat down on the edge of his crumpled bed. "So why are you here?"
False Fulton shrugged. "I haven't the foggiest idea. You created me, I just turned up when I was called for."
"What use are you then?" Fulton asked getting angry, literally, at himself.
The fake version of himself laughed out loud. "What you're really asking there is what use you are."
"Fine, what use am I?"
"Don't you know?" Fake Fulton asked.
"If I knew would I be asking you?" The real Fulton shot back.
"I guess not. But if you don't know how in the blue hell can I tell you? I'm just part of you, remember? Or is your memory knackered as well as the rest of your brain?"
Fulton got to his feet. "I am not just going to sit here and be insulted by myself."
"Really," False Fulton said. "You have somewhere else you'd like for me to insult you?"
Real Fulton jumped back to his feet and took two steps toward pseudo-Fulton with his fists balled. He stopped short of punching his other self.
The other version of Fulton grinned. "You were going to hit me."
"No I wasn't," Real Fulton denied.
"Don't try to lie to me. I'm you so it's just lying to yourself. But I guess you're getting good at that." Pseudo-Fulton said pointedly.
"And what exactly do you mean by that?"
"I can't tell you anything you don't already know, remember? Jeez, you really are messed up."
That was the last straw. Fulton screwed his right fist up tight and swung at his counterpart. He aimed the blow to connect with the left side of the other Fulton's jaw.
The next thing he knew his fist slammed solidly in the left side of his own face, knocking him back a step.
Enraged the real Fulton took another swing and ended up smashing his fist into his own nose.
"What the . . ." he said.
Fake Fulton spoke slowly like Fulton was a child. "I. Am. You. All you're doing is hurting yourself. You need to start being honest with yourself, admit what you want, what you are."
The false-Fulton gave him a wink, "If you don't it could drive you insane." With that the image vanished and Fulton was, as he always had been, alone.
"Come to bed," Gabriella said. She was lying on her side on their satin sheets, her left hand resting on her hip. The sheer nightie that adorned her figure rested high on her thigh. Her breasts, tugged slightly sideways by gravity threatened to spill out over the top of the nightie. The thin straps holding the loose top kept slipping down her shoulders.
Francesca swivelled around from the seat next to the dresser. "In a minute."
Fulton had left and things were starting to get back to something like normality. Gabriella almost laughed, her life was never normal even when it was, normal didn't really apply to vampires. What stopped her were the things that made this only something like normality. The altered nature of her relationship with Xavier was one of those things, as was the more subtle change in her relationship with Francesca.
Gabriella huffed under her breath at Francesca's response. Yes, things weren't quite back to normal. The most difficult thing for her was that she couldn't seem to be able to do anything to make things go back to how they had been. More than anything that was all that she wanted.
Not knowing what else to do, Gabriella adjusted herself into a more comfortable, less alluring, position and tried to get to sleep. Sleep was an elusive companion. She still had too many thoughts and concerns tramping about inside her skull to allow sleep to come.
With her eyes closed in an effort to force herself to sleep, the first she knew of Francesca coming to join her was the bed shifting under the additional weight. Gabriella opened her tired eyes and Francesca was right there with her. Francesca stroked her short hair away from Gabriella's face. Gabriella offered her a sleepy smile which Francesca returned.
"Let's play." Francesca dropped a toy on the pillow barely centimetres from Gabriella's face.
An hour or so later, with Francesca truly satisfied and Gabriella satisfied at being able to please her, they lay together. Francesca was behind Gabriella, her head at her shoulder with her arms around her. Gabriella held onto her sire's arms, gently stroking her fingertips along the back of her forearms.
"We need to talk," Francesca breathed softly into her ear.
Xavier didn't know if Francesca had sent him away or if it had been his own decision, but Fulton was gone. And with Fulton out of the picture once again Francesca had taken Gabriella back. This meant that he had to adjust his timetable and bring his plans forward.
Xavier was under no illusions that Gabriella had any feelings for him at all. He had been a convenience to satisfy her need to feel wanted when Francesca rejected her. Nothing more than that. Now that she and Francesca were back together the feelings of discontent she had felt towards the Mistress would be starting to fade. Xavier had to act now.
He had sent Jacques to alert his supporters to the pushed-up deadline. Even now they would be feeling out the mood in the rest of the nest. Sussing out who would follow them, who would just leave them to get on with it, and those staunch supporters of the Mistress who would resist him. Those who would resist would start to find themselves being isolated and taken care of. They might not all be killed, some would simply need to be kept out of the way until the change in leadership was done with, then they would have the choice of joining him or striking out on their own.
Xavier opened the door leading to his private quarters. These thoughts of his impending victory were starting to have a physical affect on him. He doubted Gabriella would come away from Francesca to help him deal with this if he called her, so he would have to make do with a second choice. He looked around the crowd of vampires outside and spotted a pretty thing that would do. He caught her eye and beckoned her over. He might have done this one before, it was sometimes difficult to remember, because she gave a knowing smile as she walked past him into his quarters. Xavier gave her a sharp slap on the behind eliciting a yelp of combined pleasure and pain. Ah yes, he had indeed had the pleasure of this one before.
Francesca and Gabriella snapped awake at almost exactly the same time. There was some sort of a commotion going on in the nest. Francesca got to her feet in a hurry and strode out of their private chambers. She didn't pause to pull a gown on over her slight night-clothes.
Gabriella p
ushed herself up much more leisurely. She could hear Francesca's bare feet pounding in her rage as she sought out whoever had caused this disturbance. She had a good idea of what was going down out there. She pulled a red silk gown on to cover her near nakedness and followed in Francesca's wake. She paused to retrieve the knife Xavier had given her and to tuck it underneath her gown.
Gabriella entered the anteroom to their private chambers and found Francesca and Xavier facing off against each other. Xavier's trusted ally, Jacques, was also with them but he remained slightly removed ready to back Xavier up if needs be but not interfering in the confrontation.
"There will be no trouble, we are through here," Francesca was saying.
"Yes we are," Xavier said drawing a matching knife to the one he had given her and holding it on Francesca.
Astonished and clearly angered by this sudden turn of events Francesca glared at him.
"What is this?" she asked, her voice was low and dangerous.
"I'm taking over," Xavier said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Francesca looked at Gabriella with wide eyes.
In answer to the unasked question Gabriella walked across the room and stood next to Xavier.
Francesca opened her mouth as though to say something when there were more sounds of fighting from outside. Jacques backed a little further away to keep an eye out on the events transpiring outside. Apparently some of those still loyal to Francesca were resisting the change. Xavier kept his eyes and his weapon locked on Francesca.
Francesca was backing away, so slowly it was difficult to actually discern her moving. But she was gradually getting closer to a display cabinet holding a selection of swords and other pointy weapons.
Gabriella left Xavier's side and crossed to the cabinet. She wrenched the unit from the wall, grunting she thrust the case across the room. On it's journey to the other side of the room the cabinet hit a pair of mannequins done up in all manner of finery. The mannequins took a tumble, the impact opened the front of the cabinet and some of the weapons spilled out. The case hit the far wall, wood splintered and glass smashed. She stepped up in front of Francesca and wagged her finger from side to side.
"That's a no, no," she said in a patronising tone.
Francesca looked at her face intently. "You betray me for him?"
Gabriella nodded.
"Bitch!"
Francesca went to slap her. To rake her talons across her face but Gabriella caught her arm at the wrist and held it there.
"I loved you," Francesca said.
"You don't know how to love," Gabriella shot back with a heavy heart, true tears moistening her eyes. She relinquished her hold on her arm and sauntered back over to Xavier.
"You're past it. We need a fresh leader to get us out of the rut you've created," Xavier nodded to Gabriella keeping his focus on Francesca. "Gabriella recognises this and she's chosen to switch to the winning side. There's still time for you to join my new order."
That angered Francesca almost as much as being betrayed by Gabriella. "I will not serve you."
"You know, I thought you'd say that."
The sounds of violence outside came closer.
"Looks like somebody's decided to crash the party after all," Xavier said. Jacques was now focusing more of his attention on the entrance than he was on Francesca.
The screams outside ended and there was a lot of crashing and then some more grunts and fighting. The sweet scent of blood and death grew to almost overwhelming proportions, a puddle of viscous fluid seeped under the edge of the door.
"You will regret this, both of you," Francesca threatened. "My children-"
"Your children don't care about you, they simply feared you and now they will fear me." Xavier retorted.
"You-"
"Are sick of hearing your voice," Xavier said. "One more word and I kill you now."
Francesca growled in her throat.
Gabriella stood impassively at Xavier's side.
Chapter Twenty-two
Fulton sniffed the air. Buried under the overwhelming redolence of blood he isolated Francesca's unique scent.
Stumbling to his feet he grabbed one of the pieces of left-over industrial equipment and used it to crush the vampires who posed him the most immediate threat.
Fulton had finally decided that he had to start listening to himself. To admit to himself that being with Francesca was his destiny. And this was what he found when he came back to her.
The nest was pretty empty compared to his other times here, most of the crowd preferring to stay out of the way until the power struggle was settled one way or the other. Most of the vampires who remained were engaged in a battle with each other. Not knowing whose side Fulton was on, and with him not initiating any aggressive action, he was left largely unmolested. That was until he reached the stairs on the way up to Francesca's private chambers.
He was no halfway up those stairs. The vampires on watch higher up had seen him eliminate their comrades at the bottom of the stairs and were fully prepared to engage him. They were both armed with American-style police nightsticks. Fulton had stopped to pull a knife from one of the vampires he had squashed and had it in a reverse grip in his right hand, so that the blade rested down along his forearm.
The first vampire took himself a couple of steps down to take the fight to Fulton. He ducked under the hastily thrown blow of the nightstick and charged up the couple of steps separating him from his attacker. He swept his arm up and sliced his knife up from the vampires groin to his throat. Blood gushed all over him as Fulton continued up the last few steps. The wound that he had inflicted wouldn't be fatal but it would certainly incapacitate the vampire for the time being.
The second vampire knocked the first out of Fulton's grip and it continued to spill its blood on the landing outside Francesca's chambers. Fulton got his left arm up just in time to deflect the better aimed blow this vampire threw at him. He was knocked towards the edge of the landing. His feet slipped on the metal made slick by the first vampire’s blood, his back hit the rail at the edge of the landing. The second vampire struck at him again but this time Fulton got out of the way. The second vampire was unbalanced following his failed assault and Fulton dumped him over the rail. Fulton watched the vampire hit the ground, his legs at twisted angles. That vampire wasn't dead either but he wouldn't be getting up for a while. There were plenty of other vampires lying around down there who would never be getting up. A crimson tide was washing over the floor. The dead vampires who had spilled most of that blood created little islands in the bloody sea. Only the fact that he knew it was all vampiric blood that had been spilled allowed Fulton to keep his human visage.
Fulton could smell Francesca and a few other vampires beyond this doorway. With all the confusion he had fought through to get to this point, he had no idea what he would face in there. So Fulton had to be careful when he went in there.
Fulton charged and dropped to his knees as he slid through the door and ducked behind the cabinet.
Fulton rolled away and came up to his feet holding his knife pointing at the vampire, Jacques, who had been closest to the door. He glanced around taking in the scene as quickly as he could. Surprisingly Gabriella appeared to have sided with Xavier against her Mistress.
"Am I interrupting something?" Fulton asked looking at the tableau.
"They decided to revolt against my leadership," Francesca said calmly.
"Shut up," Xavier spat at her.
"You have more problems than just me," Francesca said.
Jacques and Fulton eyed each others weapons dangerously maintaining a stand-off.
Xavier was alternating his eyes from Francesca to Fulton. Fulton and Jacques moved around each other sizing each other up. Fulton being careful not to approach too close to Xavier and Jacques preventing him from getting too near to Francesca.
Gabriella's gaze fluttered around the chamber. Her eyes remained on each of the prospective combatants for only a moment bef
ore moving on to the next. The little vampiress slipped in closer to Xavier, nestling in up to his side as if to get more into his protection.
"You could join me," The male vampire said wrapping his left arm around Gabriella's slender waist. "I could let her live and offer her to you as a sex slave," He indicated Francesca.
"Tempting but no," Fulton said pretending to consider.
"Then it's time for her to die."
At that instant Gabriella shifted in his grip. She produced a knife from somewhere on her person, there weren't all that many places for her to hide it underneath her gown. She placed the tip of the knife in the side of Xavier's ribs.
"Well, this just keeps getting better and better," Fulton commented. "Will you people please make your minds up about who you each want to kill?"
"What are you doing?" Xavier snarled at Gabriella.
"Do you really believe that I would turn my back on Francesca to be with you, Xavier?"
Xavier shifted the arm which held his knife, a little increased pressure from Gabriella's weapon made him wince and think better about any movement.
"We knew you would try to betray me," Francesca told Xavier.
Fulton watched as realisation dawned on him.
"You set me up?" Xavier's jaw had literally dropped.
Francesca nodded.
Xavier glared at the two women.
"Hey, I'm sorry I've interrupted this little revolution but can we just hurry up and get all of this sorted?" Fulton said.
"This doesn't look like it's going to end well for any of us. So why don't we call this one a draw and go our separate ways?" Gabriella tried.
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